Thanksgiving: Round 2

Isn't a little ironic that I feel busier (and my house is waaaaay dirtier) than when I was working full time?! I don't get it! We've been living life at 90mph lately and taking lots of photos. :)

We had a wonderful time visiting with my family for Thanksgiving. We ate some good food, celebrated mom and dad's 27th wedding anniversary, spent a great morning having breakfast in my sister and brother-in-law's new home and decorated the Pruitt Family Christmas Tree. Enough talking- pictures are better.

Our table setting...

cutest turkey ever! :)

 

snuggles with Papa

the newlyweds

I can't take enough pictures of him.

"Uh, Papa, your hat's a little big even on my melon head."

Chase holding Brynn and Ryan's new puppy, Bigsby (the name is still under debate, I think)

There is too much cuteness here.

Dad has an awesome super- fancy Canon camera... that my sister doesn't know how to work. Here I am trying to talk her through how to use it so we can get a family photo at dinner.

So if we can crop out my goofy face in the above pic and merge in Tev's cute smile, we might have a good photo... ugh.

Celebrating 27 beautiful years of marriage with Dinner at the Speedway Club.

Finally! A family photo... aaaaand, the baby is asleep.

More to come. The photos on the super-fancy camera are HUGE files and take a while to download. If only there were 25 hours in a day... or my baby slept through the night.

Thanksgiving: Round 1

We've been busy around here! This little man changes almost daily and is sooooo much fun! My mom's dear friend send him a beautiful knitted blanket and, of course, we had to do a "thank you" photo shoot.

OH, don't those blue eyes just make you want to melt! Dane is inching closer to sitting up on his own. Right now he does really when he's propped on his boppy or the couch. Tell me his face doesn't make you laugh out loud!

We can't sit for too long though. It's a lot of work!

Papa J, Granna and Uncle Chase came in for a quick visit to tide them over until Thanksgiving. We had a great time playing with them while they were here.

 Uncle Chase was holed up in Dane's room playing video games...

 Papa J stole lots of snuggles. :)

Granna loves to play with the Boy. 

We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving with Dane's Poppa T and Gran Gooden. We ate too much and took some good naps. :)

Sorry, Auntie Meg and Uncle Jess! At least it's not on facebook! Dane got to spend an evening with his Poppa and Gran while Mommy and Daddy went on their first date in months!! Even though it was just out to dinner and running some errands we had the best time together. I'm so blessed to have married my best friend.

 After a morning walk... our poor effort to work off some of delicious food we ate!

 Dane spending time with his Grammy Sherry.

Here he is snuggled up with his Gran, taking a much needed nap. I assume he's starting to get some teeth. For a baby who doesn't cry and is always in a good mood, he's been fussing and upset a lot lately. If this is teething.... IT STINKS! I hope those nasty things come through quickly!

On our date night we ate dinner at Red Lobster and brought home the extra biscuits... Unfortunately, I forgot about them until we found Bingo in this predicament. Notice his food bowl in the background. The poor guy just couldn't help himself, I guess.

Dane and I enjoy the weekends because it always means there is plenty of time with Daddy.

We wrapped up a great weekend by going to church as a family and coming home to eat leftovers....

...and take a good Sunday afternoon nap. :) (HA! Sorry guys! It's too easy!)

This week we are off to North Carolina for Thanksgiving with Dane's Papa J and Granna. We also get to see Auntie B and Uncle Ryan's new house! More pictures to come, I'm sure!

heartstrings

"When I was about twenty years old, I met an old pastor's wife who told me that when she was young and had her first child, she didn't believe in striking children, although spanking kids with a switch pulled from a tree was standard punishment at the time. "But one day when her son was four or five, he did something that she felt warranted a spanking--the first in his life. And she told him he would have to go outside and find a switch for her to hit him with. The boy was gone a long time. And when he came back in, he was crying. "He said to her, 'Mama, I couldn't find a switch, but here's a rock you can throw at me.' 

All of the sudden a mother understood how the situation felt from the child's point of view: that if my mother wants to hurt me, it makes no difference what she does it with; she might as well do it with a stone. "The mother took the boy onto her lap and they both cried. Then she laid the rock on a shelf in the kitchen to remind herself forever: never violence. Because violence begins in the nursery--one can raise children into violence." ~From a peace prize acceptance speech given by Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking

I read this quote the other day and it has torn me up one side and down the other. I held Dane for a while and cried big tears all over his big melon head. I still can't stop thinking about it and can hear that sweet little boy's voice every time I look at the big, round eyes and droopy cheeks on my nearly-four month old. We spend hours each day playing in the floor together, he watches me cook almost every meal from his bouncy seat on our big kitchen island, and he snuggles up with Tevie and I in the morning and before bed each night. I cannot fathom those giant blue eyes looking up at me with hurt in them. Not only can I not bear the thought of hurting him, I couldn't bear to know that he was afraid of me and what I was going to do him. Of course I want him to be reverent, but never, ever fearful.

Tevie and I haven't finished discussing how we are going to go about punishment as Dane gets older, but this definitely sparked a great conversation the other day. I read a similar article, written in the child's point of view, regarding the "cry it out" method. That helped us come to a decision on that topic. 

I don't mean to say that not spanking makes one a superior parent. Tevie and I were spanked and we have amazing, loving parents and we didn't turn out too warped. :) Kidding! Maybe this quote will spark a conversation in your family as you decide what's best when it comes to raising your precious gifts from God. 

growing like a weed

A Super cute little weed!

I got a new phone and I am still trying to figure out how to take a picture on it, so bear with me as all of these are sideways. 

For some strange reason I thought being a SAHM (stay-at-home mom) would provide me the opportunity to catch up on my reading, blog regularly and take long walks around the neighborhood. Ummmm, nope. Not even close! Our days start early around here, usually by 6am and we hit the ground running. Some mornings it's fun stuff like stripping my bed or Dane's bed because he's leaked through his diaper and the sheets are soaked with pee... or poop. Let me just tell you, that was NOT a fun morning! After changing and feeding the baby, he plays while I get to work on my domestic duties. I love that our house has never been cleaner... but Tevie is probably tired of coming every day to a new arrangement of furniture or lamps or whatever. When you stare at stuff all day you get tired of it being in the same ol' place.

We have been busy! First, we cheered on our beloved STL Cards to a World Series victory! Yes, that his a 12-month shirt on my three month old! *gulp*

We enjoyed an awesome Halloween weekend. Dane was a little farmer/cowboy and he trick-or-treated at his Poppa T and Gran/Momma D Gooden's church.

Tevie watched a man-for-whom-I-cannot-think-of-a-nice-name drop of this sweet girl in our driveway Halloween weekend. She is at Sugarfoot Farms in Sparksville, KY if you're interested!

The Boy has been practicing sitting up in his bumbo seat a lot. He's finally starting to get the hang of it!

Dane will be 4 months old on the 23rd. He changes almost daily! He holds his head up pretty well and can sit in his chair for a few minutes. He's getting to like tummy time a little more each day. Now that he can hold his head and chest up he seems happier- before he'd bury his face in the blanket and scream!

He loves his carseat and to go for car rides. Thankfully, we know that if he's starting to get fussy, we can feed him and strap him in and he'll sleep the entire drive somewhere.

He LOVES to get kisses. It will just melt your heart when he turns his cheek toward you and grins that big gummy grin. He also loves when his daddy does the UK "Oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, C-A-T-S, Cats, cats, cats!" cheer. He smiles so big and holds his mouth in the "oh" position just like daddy. :) He got mad when I pulled them away from the Cats game. :)

Dane's great aunt Faith sent him this beautiful handmade quilt. I've hung it his room- I'm afraid you won't get to use it, son, because mommy wants to keep it and treasure it forever! Thanks, Aunt Faith!

In other news, Dane is a morning person... too bad his momma isn't. Actually, I once hated mornings, now I love sitting up before the sun with this smiling face.

 We get to visit Daddy at work. He's teaching Dane to program. :)

 We wished our Poppa T a happy birthday yesterday. Dane thought it was hilarious!

Mommy is even getting a little crafty. I sewed a scrap piece of fabric onto a cloth diaper we're currently using as a burp rag. This is the first of many projects, I'm afraid. Pinterest is going to be the death of me and I don't even have an account because the stupid thing won't send an invite to my email! 

 

We love you to the moon and back, little man. Feel free to stop growing and stay this size forever!